Farming again..

Not sure what came over me - but I'm thinking getting those do.Good stitches blocks done has spurred me on - so while waiting for the painted and inked pages of my journal to dry, I whipped up 4 more Farmers blocks - so that's 97 done now and only 14 more to go....feels like a marathon!

no 94 - Tall Pine Tree

no 95 - Temperance Tree

no. 97 - Waste not

no.96 - Tulip

Hoping to do a few more and get them finished - but if Melbourne continues a lovely run of the weather we had today, it's unlikely

do. Good Stitches - Cherish

Debra asked for a couple of blocks with a beachy theme and they had to be all one colour - so I've added a little artistic licence and we have a blue boat for sailing on the deep blue...

and a green lighthouse, who really wanted to be a greenhouse....

There was a couple of 'Y' seams when I joined the pieces together - that was fun!

These will be joined with the other blocks made by the clever ladies in the Cherish Circle and will become a gorgeous quilt for a deserving someone.

Progress

In between refining my workshop (how share trading works - an operations perspective) and shooing the baby chooks out of my herb patch....

Some came over to check out the shiny thing in my hand (my camera).  The little rooster on the left is feeling particularly brave after lasting a couple of rounds with Big Red, my fully grown - and 4 times larger - rooster

I've been putting together one of the CFA quilts...the blocks were pieced by some of my wednesday evening ladies and they've done a fabulous job......next to do is the quilting but first I'll have to find some backing before I can throw it on to the Gammill.....thinking flame shapes all over - ladders and flames - must be for the fire brigade of course :-)

Making a stationery box (with blank cards and notelets) for my ma-in-law's birthday...some days she doesn't get out and I thought this would be handy in an emergency - I followed this fabulous tute - and have to say the blank cards I put inside took me longer to make than the box!.

the box packs up to this

when you take the lid off, it opens up to this - space for cards, tags, stamps, a pen and a little booklet for writing down reminders

I've also done some work on my school assignments (so much more to do on those - and time is running out!) and contemplated how I'm going to quilt this...

busy, busy, busy - thanks gawd for school holidays.

Linking up with Cindy's Really Random.......check out the diverse range of doings this week

what a stinker!

This month for the Quilt Club Australia bee we were asked to make a lonestar string block using red, white and blue - being the staunch anglophile I am, I have quite a bit of fabric in those colours so finding scraps wasn't going to be a problem.

I have foundation pieced lots of times, so that wasn't going to be a problem.

However, I am never going to make another one of these blocks in my life.......

That's all

Community projects

When I first joined the local community quilt club, we met in a tiny room - no-one could bring their sewing machines because it was too cramped, not to mention dangerous (an Occupational Health and Safety nightmare!)  So when I took over teaching, I vowed to myself that I had to find a better venue, especially as I intended to introduce Project of the Month and sewing machines were mandatory.....

A couple of times we'd used the room at the local CFA (Country Fire Authority) for making charity quilts - the room was large, well lit, lots of power points and has an accessible kitchen - perfect - so I slept with one of the Firies (it's ok, he's my husband!!) and we were able to secure their meeting room on wednesday mornings and wednesday evenings - so much better and so much more conducive to boosting creativity.

The Firies have been great - if they're in the building when we are (for call-outs and other stuff) they never fail to pop their heads through the door and say hello, so when they asked if we could make a quilt to include in their upcoming 70th birthday celebrations, we couldn't say no -  in fact, we said 'yes' twice! - and all proceeds from the raffle will go to the Burns Unit at the Royal Children's Hospital.

We've started two quilts - one that we hope will appeal to the older generation and the other, a more modern style.....neither are finished (lots more to do) but here's a little preview....

Simple nine-patches in country colours and applique created by the very clever Jan and Lynne - Somerville is known for chook farms and apple and pear orchards

This one is called 'Ladders' - appropriately - by the very clever Elizabeth Hartman of Oh Fransson fame - out of the new 'We Love Color' book

Obviously more to do before they're finished - but well done ladies - doing a fabulous job :)

.......and here's a little montage of some of their creativity so far....

Love my ladies.....

I'm in!!!!

I'm very excited that I was able to snaffle up a spot on Mouthy Stitches 2 - I did the first one and it was fabulous - very talented group and the swap mamas absolutely fantastic - I almost missed out on a spot last time so this time I watched and waited, lurking on the 'net and then the call came out - I filled in my form quick smartish and hoped and hoped - and got an email to say that I needed to cement my place in the swap with an inspiration mosaic for my secret partner. WOO HOO............................

Even while filling in the form I was struggling just a little to try and articulate what I like - and then searching through my faves it was clear there was not a theme to those I'd picked - so, secret partner - I have eclectic tastes - I do like colour - but not 'all in' vomit colour (unless it's a gigantor quilt and then it looks fabulous!).  I like screen printed simplicity and clever contrasts (pin stripe v screen printed floral).  I like texture, whether it's clever pleating, ruching etc and especially when it's combined with hand embroidery (not the florally embroidery of old though!)......................so here's some images I like - hope it helps you :)

1. Brooke's Quilt #5, 2. Fern Trio, 3. Cosmos Pillow and hand embroidery, 4. Autumn, 5. Paisley Hand embroidery, 6. Laptop Bag Brown Leaf, 7. Estojo, 8. DS's new Tetris messenger tote, 9. Frame purses, 10. Inset Zip Pouch, 11. Echo by Lotta Jansdotter, 12. echoes, august 14, 13. Red and White Churn Dash14. Not available15. Not available16. Not available

Now to load up the swap button....

when the sun shines, you just have to.....

get into the garden - yesterday was the first day of spring Downunder so what's a girl to do when the weather turns on a glorious display?

We have been slowly building the beds over the last few weeks with lots of poo and compost (from the animals I hasten to add!) and today we planted seedlings of toms, a load of asian vegetables just right for stir-fries, lettuce, spring onions, leeks, pumpkins and garlic.  Tomorrow I'll get to the seeds I saved from last year and get those in too - some I'll sow direct and some into the greenhouse (sweet corn for example - still a bit too cold for those).  I've also got some potatoes to put in but I have to get the box ready - I'm not putting them into the garden beds themselves as I'm still picking out potato plants from 3 years ago!

Lloyd did a fabulous job of the surrounds with the scoria and it's certainly easier to get around the beds now.

Spring is certainly blooming about - the avocado has a lot of new growth (avocados due next year) the wattle is out (so sneezing and red eyes abound!) and I just found a tiny asparagus shoot that I hope will presage a whole bunch - it's a purple variety called 'fat bastard' but it's not so fat at the minute - a few more sunny days though and I think it'll be pleasantly plump!

Yesterday I got a bit of a wriggle on with some sewing - I have school stuff to do too but it wasn't calling my name at all - this was...

It's mostly Kate Spain's 'Terrain', with some Kona solids thrown in for good measure - in between will be white (which I might go and cut out shortly) and there's a few edges to be completed too - should look very pretty once it's done - actually, might cut out a few more crosses and make it a bit bigger.......

Linking up to Fresh Sewing Day - pop on over and take a look at what others are doing...